Article pusher mechanism for bagging machines



Sept. 3, 1910 3,527,337

ARTICLE PUSHER MECHANISM FOR BAGGING MACHINES Filed April 26, 1967 A? c.FORMO 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR AL Vl/V C. FOR/10 147' TO/FNE V Sept. 8,1970 A. C. FORMO ARTICLE PUSHER MECHANISM FOR BAGGING MACHINES 4Sheets-Sheet Filed April 26, 1967 p 1970 A. c. FORMO 3,527,337

ARTICLE PUSHER MECHANISM FOR BAGGING MACHINES Filed April 26, 1967 4Sheets-Sheet 5 ALVIN C. FOP/"l0 m W/QJTM ATTORNEY A. C. FORMO Sept. 8,1970 ARTICLE PUSHER MECHANISM FOR BAGGING MACHINES Filed April 26, 19674 Sheets-Sheet 4 A... qxmlmrmlm ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,527,337ARTICLE PUSHER MECHANISM FOR BAGGING MACHINES Alvin C. Formo, Seattle,Wash, assignor to Formost Packaging Machines, Inc., Seattle, Wash., acorporation of Washington Filed Apr. 26, 1967, Ser. No. 633,913 Int. Cl.B65g 19/02 U.S. Cl. 198-470 13 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Anarticle is pushed by a traveling paddle into the mouth of a bag heldopen by spreader fingers. A curved arm carrying the paddle is then swungbackward withdrawing the paddle from the bag opening as its carriermoves upward around one end of a course having upper and lower straightstretches. A positioner rotatable unidirectionally is engaged by the armcarrier to swing the paddle arm into paddle-retracting position and toreturn it to its original attitude as the carrier is raised from thelower straight stretch of its orbit to its upper straight stretch. Atthe opposite end of its orbit a rotary arm synchronized with the travelof the paddle carrier engages such carrier to maintain the attitude ofthe paddle arm constant as it is lowered from the upper straight stretchof its orbit to its lower straight stretch for movement toward thebagging station.

A principal object of this invention is to provide a positive controlover the movement of an article-pushing paddle as it moves around anorbit of a bagging machine for the purpose of pushing an article into abag and then being retracted from the bag quickly without interruptionof the movement of the paddle carrier around the orbit.

More specifically it is an object to provide mechanism which will guidea paddle carrier for retraction of a paddle from the mouth of a bag asthe carrier is raised from a lower stretch of its orbit to its upperstretch at one end of the orbit and which will maintain the attitude ofthe paddle carrier constant as it is lowered from the upper stretch ofits orbit to its lower stretch at the opposite end of the orbit.

It is a further object to provide such mechanism which will be of simpleconstruction and efiective in operation.

FIG. 1 is a top perspective of the bagging machine.

FIG. 2 is a side elevation of the upper portion of the bagging machinewith parts broken away, and FIG. 3 is a plan of the bagging machinehaving parts broken away.

FIG. 4 is a top perspective of paddle-lowering mechanism of the baggingmachine, and FIGS. 5, 6 and 7 are side elevations of such mechanismshowing parts in different operative positions.

FIG. 8 is a top perspective of paddle-carrier-raising mechanism of thebagging machine, and FIGS. 9, and 11 are side elevations of suchmechanism with parts in different operative positions.

The present invention relates to a machine which is particularly usefulfor bagging sliced loaves of bread in polyethylene bags, but bymodifying the machine in minor respects it can be used for bagging otherarticles singly or in groups, such as a cluster of bread rolls, or evena plurality of separate articles which can be moved as a group by apusher paddle into the open end of a bag suitably held open. In such abagging machine it is important that the pusher paddle be moved rapidlyand under positive control at all times so that it will engage thearticle or articles to be bagged properly and firmly during the baggingoperation and will then be retracted quickly and reliably from the bagto be returned to a starting location for eifecting another baggingoperation.

The particular bagging machine illustrated in the drawings has a base 1supporting a superstructure 2 located alongside a table 3 over whicharticles to be bagged are moved to the bagging station 4. Such movementis effected by the pusher paddles 5 supported on the ends of curved arms6 which are attached to carrier rods 7. As shown in FIG. 3, each ofthese rods is supported by a collar 8 carried by a roller chain 9 and asecond collar 10 spaced from collar 8 and carried by a roller chain 11as shown in FIG. 4. The roller chain 9 is supported and guided formovement by sprockets 12 and 13 at opposite ends of its loop, as seen inFIGS. 4 and 8. Chain 11 is supported and guided by sprockets 14 and 15at opposite ends of its loop. The loops of the two chains 9 and 11 areheld in alignment by such sprockets and establish the orbit about whichthe paddle carrier rods 7 are moved. Sprockets 13 and 15 are rotativelycarried by common shaft 16.

Shaft 16' carrying sprockets 12 and 14 also carries a drive sprocket 17for rotating such shaft, as shown in FIG. 3. An intermediate shaft 18carries a sprocket 19 which is connected to sprocket 17 by chain 20. Apowered chain 21 engages sprocket 22 mounted on shaft 18 to drive suchshaft. Power supplied to the chain 21 will drive the two paddle-carryingchains 9 and 11 at a speed corresponding to the speed at which it isdesired to move articles along the table 3 during the bagging operation.The mechanism for powering chain 21 can be controlled by suitablecontrols 21 for the purpose of starting and stopping movement of thepaddle-carrying rods 7 around their orbits.

At the bagging station 4 a stack of bags 23 such as of polyethylenematerial is supported so that the open ends of these bags face articlesmoved toward them along the table 3 by the paddles 5. The mouth of theuppermost bag can be opened by an air jet to enable the adjacent ends ofspreader fingers 24 to be moved into the bag end. Such spreader fingersare reciprocated toward the bag stack and are spread apart to open themounth of the bag to receive the article or articles to be bagged, suchas a sliced loaf of bread. When the article to be bagged has been lodgedin the bag by the paddle, continued movement of the paddle will separatethe filled bag from the bag stack and carry it onto a discharge table25. The paddle-carrying mechanism then operates to withdraw the paddlefrom the mouth of the bag and to return the paddle around the orbitdefined by the chains 9 and 11 to engage and bag another article.

Each pusher paddle 5 is supported by its arcuate arm 6 depending fromits supporting rod 7 so that the carrier rod will be above the path oftravel of the article to be bagged and consequently will not interferewith movement of such article. The paddle-supporting arm is curvedrearwardly and upwardly from the paddle so that the paddle can beadvanced a substantial distance into the mouth of the bag during thefilling operation without the curved arm interferring with the bagmouth. The paddle should be spaced far enough from the carrier rod 7 sothat when the article has been bagged the paddle can be withdrawn fromthe mouth of the bag by rotation of the rod 7 about its axis even thoughsuch rod may still be moving in the same direction that the filled bagwas moved by the paddle. The upper and lower straight stretches of theorbit traveled by the paddle-supporting rods must, however, be spacedapart a distance greater than the distance between such rod and theportion of the paddle carried by it which is farthest from such rod sothat as a paddle-carrying rod is moved in one direction along the upperstretch of its orbit, its paddle can pass a paddle-supporting rod movingin the opposite direction along the lower stretch of the orbit.

It has been found to be desirable to control positively the attitude ofthe paddles 5 and their supporting arms 6 as they travel around theorbit defined by the chains 9 and 11. Such attitude is controlled bycontrolling the rotation of the arm carrier rods 7 in their collars 8and 10. Such rods are freely rotatable in such collars but are heldagainst lengthwise shifting relative to such collars by set collars 26secured to the rod 7 adjacent to the respective collars 8 and 10. Therods 7 are guided for movement in a linear path along the upper andlower stretches of the orbit by rollers 27 mounted on the shaft, whichride on tracks 28 alongside the upper and lower stretches of the chains9 and 11. The guiding engagement of the rollers with these tracks avoidsthe necessity of the chains 9 and 11 being held sufiiciently tight tosupport the rods 7 and the paddles, so that sagging of stretches ofchains 9 and 11 between adjacent rods 7 does not affect the course ofmovement of such rods. Plates 28' hold chain stretches 9 and 11straight.

It is preferred that the paddles 5 and their supporting arms bemaintained in the same attitude while their supporting rods are beingmoved along both the top and bottom stretches of the orbits throughwhich such rods move. The attitude of the paddles can be established bycontrolling the rotation of rods 7, and such rotation can be controlledby controlling the swinging of a crank arm 29 attached to rod 7. Asshown best in FIG. 4 such crank arm carries upper and lower rollers 30spaced apart slightly from each other and spaced a considerable distancefrom the axis of shaft 7. These rollers straddle a straight guide track31 extending along the upper and lower stretches of the carrier rodorbit between the chaincarrying sprockets. Because engagement of eitherroller 30 with the track 31 will hold the crank 29 against swinging thepaddle-carrier rod 7 will correspondingly be prevented from turning soas to maintain the paddle 5 and its arcuate supporting arm 6 in aconstant attitude.

At the opposite ends of the carrier rod orbit it is necessary totransfer the crank arm rollers 30 from engagement with one track 31 toengagement with the other track 31. At the article-feeding end of theorbit such rollers and their crank must be lowered from the upper track31 to the lower track 31. At the filled-bag-discharging end of the orbittraced by the carrier rods 7 the rollers 30 and their cranks must beraised from the lower track 31 to the upper track 31. To providepredetermined control of the attitude of the paddles 5 and theirsupporting arms 6 at opposite ends of the orbit, therefore, and toprevent indiscriminate change of attitude of such paddles and armsduring the movement of their carrier rods around the orbit ends,mechanism is provided to control the swinging of the cranks 29 from thetime the rollers 30 leave contact with one track 31 and engage the othertrack 31. Controlling the swinging of the crank arms 29 during suchtransfer also enables the rollers to be engaged properly with the trackat the end of each transfer operation.

To control swinging of the cranks 29 at each end of the orbit of carrierrods 7 during the transfer operation mentioned above, rotary controlmeans rotatable unidirectionally are provided at each end of the rodorbit. Such 4 unidirectionally rotatable control means at thearticlefeeding end of the orbit include an arm 32 secured to a stubshaft 33 which is rotated by a sprocket 34 shown best in FIGS. 5, 6 and7. This sprocket is driven in synchronism with shaft 16, carrying thesprockets 13 and 15 on which the paddle-driving chains 9 and 11 run, bya sprocket 35 connected to sprocket 34 by a short chain 36. The spacingbetween the axes of shafts 16 and 33 corresponds to the spacing betweenthe axis of a paddlecarrier rod 7 and the axis of one of the rollers 30on crank 29 having a spindle 37 long enough to project into registrywith the arm 32. The end of such arm has in it a notch of a size andshape to engage the spindle 37.

The length of arm 32 between the axis of shaft 33 and spindle 37corresponds to the distance between the axis of shaft 16 and the axis ofrod 7 during movement of the rod around sprocket 15. Thus the arctravelled by such spindle is parallel to the arc travelled by rod 7 butis offset from it. The sprockets 34 and 35 and chain 36 are then timedso that the notched end of arm 32 will be in a position to engage theroller spindle 37 as the crank 29 is moved to the article-feed end ofthe orbit as shown in FIG. 4. Moreover, the carrier rods 7 are spacedalong chains 9 and 11 distances corresponding to one or more completerotations of arm 32, so that the notched end of such arm will be in aposition to pick up the projecting spindle 37 of each crank as itscarrier rod 7 approaches the sprockets 13 and 15, as shown in FIG. 4.

As each crank 29 is carried around the sprocket 15, the arc traversed bythe crank pivot axis coinciding with the axis of carrier rod 7 will beequal to the radius of the arc traversed by the notch in the end ofcontrol arm 32. This notch will be sufficiently deep to prevent theprojecting spindle 37 from swinging downward out of such notch beforethe rollers 30 of the crank arm can engage the lower track 31. As thearm 32 continues to be rotated, however, the notch will be raised fromthe projecting spindle so that the crank arm 29 will be released fortravel of its rollers along the lower track 31. Because of therelationship of the arcs traversed by the carrier rod 7 and the notchedend of the arm 32 and the synchronization of rotation of sprocket 15 andarm 32, the crank arm 29 and consequently the associated paddle 5 andsupporting arm 6 will be maintained in a substantially constant attitudeas the paddle arm and rod 7 supporting them are lowered from the upperstretch of the rod orbit to its lower stretch.

At the filled-bag-discharging end of the orbit of carrier rods 7, thecontrol means rotatable unidirectionally to control the attitude of thepaddle 5 and its supporting arm 6 take the form of a rotor 38 carrying asquare cluster of guide rollers 39. These rollers are spaced apartsulficiently to leave between them passages for receiving a blade 40carried by the crank 29. Such blade preferably has a double-beveled endto facilitate its entrance into a passage between guide rollers 39. Therotor 38 is rotatively mounted in a bearing block 41 located at thedischarge end of the lower track 31 as shown best in FIG. 8.

A spring-pressed detent roller 42 mounted near block 41 will engage arecess in the periphery of rotor 38 located to hold the rotor in aposition such that one of its passages between opposite rollers 39 willbe disposed in alignment with the crank arm blade 40 while the rollers30 of such crank arm are still engaged with the lower track 31. By thetime that the paddle-carrier rod 7 begins to move upward aroundsprockets 12 and 14 the blade 40 will have penetrated suflicientlydeeply into the passage between the opposite pairs of rollers 39 so asto span between the rollers along such passage. As the paddlesupportingrod 7 moves upward around the sprockets 12 and 14, therefore, as shownin FIG. 10, the lever action of blade 40 will rotate the rotor 38 fromthe position shown in FIG. 9 through the position of FIG. 10 to theposition of FIG. 11. Continued upward movement of the carrier rod 7 willthen withdraw the blade 40 from between the rollers 39.

As shown in FIG. 11 the blade 40 is not withdrawn from between therollers 30 until the crank arm rollers 30 can engage the downwardlycurved end portion 31' of the upper track 31, so that during furthermovement of the paddle carrier rod 7 the attitude of the crank arm 29will be controlled by engagement of its rollers 30 with such curvedtrack portion. By such lever action of the blade 40 the rotor 38 willhave been turned through an angle of approximately 90, so that thedetent roller 42 will be in at least partial engagement with anotherrecess 43, such recesses being located at 90 circumferentially of therotor 38. When the blade 40 is released from the rollers 39, therefore,the detent roller 42 will engage fully in a recess 43 to position therotor with another passage between rollers 39 in alignment with anapproaching blade 40 of another crank arm 29.

It will be seen that during upward movement of the carrier rod 7 fromthe position of FIGS. 8 and 9 to that of FIG. 11 such carrier rod willhave been rotated by crank 29 in a counterclockwise direction through anangle of approximately 90 as seen in FIGS. 9 and 11, because of thecooperation between the crank arm blade 40 and the rollers 39 of rotor38. Such rotary movement of carrier rod 7 will swing thepaddle-supporting arm 6 from the positions shown in FIGS. 8 and 9through the position of FIG. to the position of FIG. 11. Such swingingof arm 6 Will withdraw paddle 5 from the open end of the bag during theinitial upward movement of the rod 7 around the lower quadrant ofsprockets 12 and 14 even though such rod during such travel still has acomponent of movement in the direction of movement of the article to bebagged. Such movement also has raised the paddle above the path ofmovement of the bagged article as shown in FIG. 11.

During continued movement of the rod 7 around the upper quadrants ofsprockets 12 and 14 such rod will be turned progressively throughapproximately 90 in the clockwise direction from the position of FIGS.1, 3 and 11 to the position shown in broken lines in the upper portionof FIG. 8 by the coaction of crank arm rollers 30 with the curved endportion 31 of the upper track 31. Such turning of carrier rod 7 willswing paddle-supporting arm 6 and its paddle back to the attitude of thepaddles shown at the center and left of FIG. 1, which attitude will thenbe maintained by the mechanism described above until the carrier rodagain has reached the filled-bagdischarging end of its orbit.

The control means rotatable unidirectionally for controlling theattitude of the paddles and their supporting arms will functioneitectively irrespective of the number of paddles moved by chains 9 and11, as long as the timing is synchronized with rotation of an arm 32 asdescribed above. While ordinarily such spacing will not be sufficientlyclose to require more than one arm 32 opposite ends of such arm could benotched or additional arms could be provided as may be necessary tosynchronize a notched arm with the location of each paddleattitudecontrolling crank arm. The single assembly of rotor 38 cancontrol the attitude of all the paddles and arms as long as the carrierrods 7 are spaced lengthwise of chains 9 and 11 a distance at least asgreat as the circumferential extent of one quadrant of sprockets 12 and14.

I claim:

1. A bagging machine including a bagging station, article-supportingmeans in advance of the bagging station supporting articles to be baggedfor movement to the bagging station, a pusher paddle engageable with anarticle to be bagged on the article-supporting means for moving sucharticle to the bagging station, and drive means for moving the pusherpaddle in an orbit successively along a lower stretch toward the baggingstation, an arcuate stretch, an upper stretch and a second arcuatestretch from such upper stretch back to the lower stretch, wherein theimprovement comprises attitude-control means connected to the pusherpaddle, orienting means adjacent to an arcuate stretch of the pusherpaddle orbit, engageable with said attitude-control means independentlyof the drive means and rotatable to orient said attitude-control meansand, consequently, to govern the attitude of the pusher paddle relativeto the drive means during movement thereof around such arcuate stretchof the pusher paddle orbit between the upper and lower stretches of suchorbit, means mounting said orienting means for rotation substantiallyabout a horizontal axis, and means restricting rotation of saidorienting means to unidirectional rotation.

2. The bagging machine defined in claim 1, in which the attitude-controlmeans includes a crank swingable relative to the drive means to alterthe attitude of the pusher paddle, and the orienting means includes amember rotatable in synchronism with movement of the drive means aroundan arcuate stretch of the pusher paddle orbit and engageable with saidcrank to govern movement thereof relative to the drive means duringtravel of the pusher paddle around such arcuate stretch.

3. The bagging machine defined in claim 2, in which the orienting meansincludes an arm rotatable in synchronism with movement of the drivemeans around the arcuate stretch of the pusher paddle orbit butrotatable about an axis offset from the center of curvature of sucharcuate stretch.

4. The bagging machine defined in claim .3, in Which the crank has anarm-engageable member spaced from its axis of swing which is engageableby the orienting means arm.

5. The bagging machine defined in claim 4, in which the distance betweenthe axis of swing of the crank and its arm-engageable member issubstantially equal to the distance between the axis of rotation of theorienting means arm and the center of curvature of the arcuate stretchof the pusher paddle orbit adjacent to the orienting means.

6. The bagging machine defined in claim 2, in which the orienting meansis located adjacent to the arcuate stretch of the pusher paddle orbitaround which the pusher paddle descends from its upper orbit stretch toits lower orbit stretch.

7. The bagging machine defined in claim 1, in which the attitude-controlmeans includes a crank swingable relative to the drive means andcarrying a blade, and the orienting means includes a rotor adjacent toan arcuate stretch of the pusher paddle orbit and engageable by saidblade as said crank is moved by the drive means for swinging said bladeand its crank relative to the drive means and rotating said rotorincrementally as the drive means moves around such arcuate stretch.

8. The bagging machine defined in claim 7, in which the engagement ofthe blade with the rotor effects swinging of the crank relative to thedrive means through an angle of approximately degrees.

9. The bagging machine defined in claim 7, in which the engagement ofthe blade with the rotor effects swinging of the crank relative to thedrive means through an angle of approximately 90 degrees in onedirection, and track means engageable by the crank for swinging thecrank relative to the drive means in the opposite direction throughsubstantially an equal angle relative to the drive means as the drivemeans moves around one arcuate stretch of the pusher paddle orbit.

10. The bagging machine defined in claim 7, and detent means engageablewith the rotor for deterring rotation thereof, but releasable forrotation of the rotor by engagement of the crank blade therewith.

11. The bagging machine defined in claim 7, in which the rotor islocated adjacent to the arcuate stretch of the pusher paddle orbitaround which the pusher paddle is 7 raised from its lower orbit stretchto its upperorbit 2,817,933 1 2/1957 Bell et al. 198-170 X stretch. 73,217,464 11/1965 Feingold 53-259X 12. The bagglng machlne definedlnclalm 7, and a. 3 228 171 7 H1966 H Cory 53 187 square cluster of fourprojections carried by the rotor greggzgblgalrs of WhlCh projections thecrank blade 1s 5 TRAVIS MCGEHEE, Primary Examiner 13. The baggingmachine defined in claim 12, in which R. L. SP'RUILL, Assistant Examinereach of the projections is a roller.

US. Cl. X.R.

References Cited 1o 259 UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,760,621 8/1956 Crescenzo198-170

